Getting Our Partners Airborne: Training Air Advisors and Their Impact In-Theater

Most Americans would be surprised to learn that US Air Force USAF members fly Russian-made Mi-17 transport helicopters and that a few have even flown Mi-35 gunships. USAF aircrew and maintenance personnel will also soon fly and maintain the Embraer Sierra Nevada A-29 Super Tucano light attack aircraft and a special-mission variant of the Pilatus PC-12 and will continue to do so for years to come. The origins of these programs can be traced to 2007, when the Department of Defense DOD developed a plan to build airpower capabilities in the Iraqi and Afghan air forces. For Afghanistan, the concept of operations proposed the acquisition of 149 rotary- and fixed-wing aircraft for training and a variety of operational missions. This proposal identified the need for an initial contingent of 600 USAF personnel a number that would increase with growing demand in Afghanistan to train and advise Iraqi and Afghan partners. Accordingly, the directive called for a capability to train USAF personnel in the air-advising mission prior to deployment. Although Air Force Special Operations Command had been providing this type of training for special operations forces SOF, no such training existed for these conventional General Purpose Forces GPF Airmen. Existing ground-centric, predeployment training centers and SOF aviationrelated training venues were at capacity. Consequently, in March 2007, the chief of staff of the Air Force directed Air Education and Training Command AETC to establish a permanent AETC-led predeployment training detachment, the Air Advisor Academy AAA, to prepare air advisors to serve in this capacity.